Monday, January 30, 2006

Suisun Looks to Speed Up Commercial Development

SUISUN CITY - The City Council is taking a hard look at the city's undeveloped commercial lands to see if the city can speed up development and get as much money as possible out of the property.

Councilmembers are expected to approve a study Tuesday that will give the city the baseline information it needs, especially if the developers want to put any of the commercial land to other uses.

The idea was born in October 2005 when the council told City Manager Suzanne Bragdon to examine the city's commercial lands and what the city should require from developers who may want to use the land for something else.

Bragdon now wants the council to hire Applied Development Economics of Sacramento to spend the next three months putting together the study.

The city can't afford to have commercial land lie idle, councilmembers said. Laying out clearly what they expect from property owners and developers will help promote development.

Suisun City's budget has suffered from lackluster sales tax revenue, which the council has vowed to raise to bring in more money for city services.

This information will help the city get as much revenue from other uses as it would if the land were developed as a commercial business.

A lot of developers want to create residential developments, Bragdon said. While houses do give the city a lot in developers fees up front, they don't generate a continuing stream of sales or transient occupancy taxes.

But if these developers can show their homes or mixed use projects can bring in as much tax revenue as a commercial business, so be it, Bragdon said.

"This is to clarify where the council is coming from," Bragdon said of the study. "We are interested in revenue generation."

The Suisun City Council meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Suisun City Council chamber at 701 Civic Center Blvd.